Downwindtracker2 wrote:
That corrosion is painful. I lost a roof on a'72 tent trailer to it. Good luck.
Yes - very painful. And lower down on the back wall like that is the worst places. There were several design issues that contributed to the whole bottom edge letting in water, mostly a weakening of the wood by the wrong fastener attachment to the amount and type of wood. Another spot was on the wing under the original propane compartment, and off course at all four corners where aftermarket jack brackets damaged the camper in the same way.
I'm trying to answer some of those things as I re-design the build - and of course that metal will be cut back to where is necessary, retain what can be, and hopefully, a little bling added to Lil' Queeny's exterior in a way that is understated, but classy.
Basic aluminum corrosion issues researched so far reveal its commonality, especially where it is in contact with wood. My metal will go back up against foil-backed bubble-wrap. Hopefully that will slow or stop further corrosion.
I pulled DW's car out of the garage and we rolled out the front-wall and cab-over ceiling sheet metal. I went to work.
Here's the vee point on the front ceiling edge, where it overlaps up under the front cabover wall metal. It's up-side-down.
And the edge. I started flattening and reshaping the angle with hammer backed by 2x4.
This photo shows the silicon still all over the corner even after major scraping already. But more cleaning and scraping was still to come. Naptha really softens the silicon for easier scraping though. And I decided to clean well - even the places I would cut out and/or cover - just so I could see exactly how much to retain.
And just look at the holes! Also holes where the front bracket of the under wing steel grids (jack mounts) were screwed to the front wall of the camper box (which were pulled out by tie-down pressure. My tie-downs will NOT be attached to the jack mount grid.
Tools of my new trade (a real body man has better tools).
This was the first rip/tear I came to for actual repair. I was earlier aware of several more in other places. The first one I really found was at the left-rear corner of the aft ceiling vent - it's about 3.5" long. But no time like the present to start the fix.
A buddy who had helped me get the metal off the camper originally had asked if I was going to drill a hole in the end of that (roof) tear to stop the rip like they do with aircraft (he's a pilot) and that irritating 100 watt incandescent that hangs above my head (usually shut off to save energy) popped on at full brightness! "Oh sure", I said with hardly any delay, like I had been thinking that all along.
It brought to memory both the fact that I had heard something like that many years okay and had since forgotten, and of my Dad teaching me when I was about thigh-high how to use a glass cutter tool across a windshield crack to keep it from continuing. It made sense.
Here's how I addressed this one.
Then came the metal straightening. Now I'm not a body man, but I do have a body and so I figured that qualified me. I used that thing on the top of my body to evaluate the situation, and those two danglies on either side of my shoulders to move about this way and that and went to town. Well - figuratively I mean. THAT day I actually stayed home.
I assume most of these dents came from rocks thrown up over the years.
I determined no amount of hammering back to shape would work unless I was able to remove metal stretches and creases. To me, that meant hammering flat first one way, then coming back around from the other side for final shaping. Without any real experience, or correct tools, I used what I had on hand to accomplish the task, including various scraps of steel, some shaped on the bench grinder. You'll see those little jigs in later pictures, especially as I get into the roof. First hammer outward. I had solid steel underneath to flatten against, paying particular attention to remove the stretch and crease without adding new hammer caused creases - however tiny. I was MOSTLY successful.
Which later resulted in this after re-shaping from the front.
Here are more back side photos in various states of cleaning and repairing. This rusty looking corrosion cleaned up much nicer than how it first appears in the photo.
After flipping and shaping it was time to start sanding.
Notice the drilled hole in the tear from a jack mount lag bolt hole.
Your eye will start picking those out automatically, especially as we get to the roof.
And then I was done for now with this piece. We rolled it up and moved it back out of the way.
I looked up at the big piece on the ceiling and I thought, "Hmmmm".
